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Virtual Blog Tour & Giveaway ~ Adulting 101 by Lisa Henry

Hi, and welcome to
the blog tour to celebrate the release of Adulting
101 by Lisa Henry. I’m visiting some of my favourite blogs around the place
to talk about writing Adulting 101,
some of my influences and inspiration, and even sharing an excerpt or two!
Don’t forget to leave a comment for your chance to win a prize!

Today I’m sharing an excerpt from Adulting 101. This is Nick and Jai’s
first official date. Well, hook up. Although, not really, because they’ve
actually already hooked up. But they probably shouldn’t count that since it was
a disaster. To be honest, neither of them knows exactly what to call what it is
they’re doing, and they’re both trying very hard not to think about it.

The doorbell chimes just before eight.

“Jai!” Janice yells from the living room.
“Doorbell!”

“Yeah, Mom,” Jai says, heading up the stairs.
“I heard!”

Jai’s hoping she can keep Caden from heading
down into the basement to visit with Uncle Jai. That’s fine with Jai most
nights, but he really doesn’t need Caden bursting in tonight.

Jai opens the front door.

Nick is wearing jeans, a Gryffindor Quidditch
Team T-shirt, and a nervous smile. “Hey!”

“Hey,” Jai says, and steps back from the door
to let him in. “I’m in the basement.”

It has to be a testimony to Nick’s age that he
doesn’t even give Jai the side-eye for admitting that. Not that Jai’s ashamed
of living in his mom’s basement while he saves money to travel, but he’s used
to people looking at him like he should be.

Nick follows him down the stairs.

“So, um, is it weird, like, me coming over
when your folks are home?” Nick asks.

“My mom,” Jai corrects automatically. “And I’m
twenty-five. She quit telling me who I could have over a while back.”

“That’s cool,” Nick says, looking around the
basement curiously.

It’s not much, really.

There’s the fold-out couch, the TV, a chest of
drawers and a closet, and a bookshelf. The washer and dryer are up against the
back wall. There’s shelving up against the back wall too, full of the usual
basement detritus: old board games with missing pieces, boxes of Christmas
decorations, lawn seed, and, for some reason, four different types of fabric
softener. The place looks like the “before” shots on a home decorating show.

Nick pads over to the bookshelves. He shoves
his hands into the pockets of his skinny jeans and rocks back and forth on his
heels a little as he checks out the books on Jai’s shelves.

“Have you, like, read Faulkner?” he asks, as though he can’t even imagine such a
thing. Then, before Jai has a chance to answer, he’s off on another tangent. “I
thought you’d have more stuff. Like, um, souvenirs and stuff from all those
countries you’ve been to? My grandma had a whole hutch full of porcelain
thimbles. You wouldn’t think there’d be a huge demand for porcelain thimbles,
right, but you can buy them everywhere.
I mean, do you think there are entire factories somewhere just cranking out
porcelain thimbles?” He shakes his head and turns to meet Jai’s gaze. “That
makes me feel complicated things about consumerism.”

“I don’t buy a lot of stuff when I travel,”
Jai says.

“Why not?”

“Most of it’s just a waste of money, and it
takes up space in my pack, and all it's going to do when I get it back here is
collect dust.”

“But how do you know where you've been without
cheesy novelty salt and pepper shakers to remind you?”

“I take a lot of photos,” Jai says. “Sometimes
I’ll listen to the same music I did when I was in a particular place, and I’ll
close my eyes and I’m there again.”

“Oh. You’re like totally Zen or something,
aren’t you?”

“Do you even know what Zen means?”

Nick’s mouth quirks up in a grin. “Something
to do with motorcycle maintenance, right?”

If he’s making a joke, it’s pretty funny.

If he’s serious . . .

Well, if he’s serious, at least he’s cute.

Blurb:

The struggle is real.

Nick Stahlnecker
is eighteen and not ready to grow up yet. He has a summer job, a case of
existential panic, and a hopeless crush on the unattainable Jai Hazenbrook.
Except how do you know that your coworker’s unattainable unless you ask to blow him in the porta-potty?

That’s probably
not what Dad meant when he said Nick should act more like an adult.

Twenty-five-year-old
Jai is back in his hometown of Franklin, Ohio, just long enough to earn the
money to get the hell out again. His long-term goal of seeing more of the world
is worth the short-term pain of living in his mother’s basement, but only
barely.

Meeting Nick
doesn’t fit in with Jai’s plans at all, but, as Jai soon learns, you don’t have
to travel halfway around the world to have the adventure of a lifetime.

This is not a summer romance. This is a summer
friendship-with-benefits. It’s got pizza with disgusting toppings, Netflix and
chill, and accidental exhibitionism. That’s all. There are no feelings here.
None. Shut up.

Lisa lives in tropical North Queensland,
Australia. She doesn't know why, because she hates the heat, but she suspects
she's too lazy to move. She spends half her time slaving away as a government
minion, and the other half plotting her escape.

She attended university at sixteen, not because
she was a child prodigy or anything, but because of a mix-up between
international school systems early in life. She studied History and English,
neither of them very thoroughly.

She shares her house with too many cats, a green tree frog that swims
in the toilet, and as many possums as can break in every night. This is not how
she imagined life as a grown-up.

Each comment on this blog
tour enters you for a chance to win a $20 Riptide credit and an ebook of your
choice from my back catalogue. You’ll also win a super secret cute little gift
that’s very close to my (and Nick’s) heart! Entries close August 20, and
contest is not restricted to US residents. Remember to leave your email address
in the comments so I can contact you if you win!

This book is cute in a "coming of age" way. It has cute characters with cute banter. There are funny parts and there are teenage angst parts.

What I really wasn't a fan of was, I thought Nick and his best friend Devon had more chemistry than Nick and Jai. While their first meeting was pretty funny with the whole getting busted part, it felt like Jai only agreed out of boredom. And kept agreeing because he had nothing better to do. His "being so cool" to Nick felt more like aloofness to me.

Bow when Devon sneaks in his room for pizza and a snuggle? That's effing adorable!!

I didn't really feel anything for Nick and Jai until about 90%. When he actually had an emotion to go and take care of Nick.

Nick has a communication problem. I think that's where most of his panic and fear comes from. He lies to his parents, but it almost seems like they don't care either. What was up with Nick's parents? I didn't feel anything there either.

I really think Devon's character, Nick's "dorkiness" and the epilogue made this book.

So while I found a lot of these relationships lacking, I still thought it was a cute and slightly humorous story

I give it 3 pizza slices

I
went into this book looking for some light, funny reading and boy did I find
it. Many times I found myself getting looks from those around me at my sudden
outburst of laughter. I liked that this book was for the most part angst free.

Nick is an 18 year old kid, straight out of
high school getting ready for college. Jai is a 25 year old guy that after he
graduated decided to travel the world and only come home in the summer to work
and save some money for his next big adventure.

Nick
and Jai are both working at the same construction company for the summer, but
due to a rather embarrassing porta potty incident, they both get fired. Let me
tell you, the porta potty incident isn't the only embarrassing situation these
two find themselves in.

Like
most 18 year olds, Nick has no clue what he wants to do when he grows up and
isn't even sure if he wants to go to college. All he knows for now is that he
wants to experience Jai in every way he can.

A
lot of time is spent in a pizza joint, so if you are one to crave food while
reading, have a pizza on standby! I was craving pizza hard for the majority of
this book!

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